Free Framed For Murder (An Anna Nolan Mystery) by Cathy Spencer Page A

suspicious of me.
    Amy’s house was on a side street five blocks away from mine, on the boundary between the old part of town and the new subdivision. It was a cute little two-storey with white siding and a neat front lawn enclosed by a white picket fence. A driveway ran up the left side of the house with a detached garage set in behind. There was a wooden sign on the front lawn with an arrow pointing to the side entrance reserved for customers. I didn’t know if she was busy with a client or not, so I decided to try the front door first. I rang the door bell a couple of times and waited, but Amy didn’t appear. The curtains were drawn and it didn’t look as if anyone was home, but there was a strong odour of wood smoke about the house. Surely she wouldn’t have lit a fire and left it? She had to be around somewhere. I stepped off the porch and craned my neck upward to see the chimney, but there was no smoke coming from it.
    “Come on, Wendy – let’s try the side door,” I said.
    We didn’t get a response there, either, so we wandered up the driveway. A high wooden fence separated the driveway from the backyard with a gate leading between them. I spotted smoke wafting over the gate. It smelled like wood smoke. What was she up to? People didn’t barbecue with wood. I hesitated, not wanting to trespass, but timidity wasn’t going to help me. I unlatched the gate and pushed my way in, pulling Wendy in behind me and closing the gate. I looked around. There was a deck along the back of the house with a fire pit sunk into the grass before it. A fire was burning in the pit and Amy was standing beside it, her back to me, with a poker dangling from her hand. I noticed a small pile of clothes lying on the grass beside her.
    I walked up behind her and said, “Hi, Amy, what are you doing?”
    She whirled around in surprise, swinging the poker toward me in defence. Wendy growled and leapt at the poker, knocking Amy to the ground.
    “Get her off me, get her off!” Amy screamed as she wrestled for the poker. Wendy clenched it in her teeth and growled, shaking her head.
    “Wendy, off!” I commanded, hauling on her leash. She growled even louder and Amy screamed again before letting go of the poker.
    A man’s face suddenly appeared over the fence. “What’s going on in there?” he called. “Hey, Amy, do you want me to call the police?”
    “No!” Amy and I both shouted. Startled, we exchanged a look. Amy looked frantic. “No,” she mouthed at me, her eyes begging me to comply.
    “It’s okay, Mister,” I called. “My dog thought the poker was a stick. When Amy didn’t throw it, my dog grabbed it and Amy tripped and fell. Wendy, lie down!” I grabbed the poker from her mouth and shoved Wendy onto the grass. She whined, flattening herself onto her belly while I helped Amy up.
    “Gee, lady, you should have better control of your dog. A dog that big could really hurt someone,” the man said.
    “I’m okay,” Amy called, brushing herself off. “Thanks for checking, Jim. That was very kind of you.”
    The man shook his head and disappeared while Amy and I gazed at each other. My hair had toppled out of its knot and was hanging in my face while Amy’s shirt had torn from her shorts.
    “You’re Anna Nolan,” she said in a soft, girlish voice. “I recognize you. You used to be Jack’s wife.”
    “That’s right. I was just stopping by to see if you could give me a manicure. I hope you can forgive this misunderstanding with my dog. I don’t know what’s got into her lately.” I said this over my shoulder as I strolled over to have a look at the fire pit. When Amy saw what I was doing, she hurried after me. Bending to examine the pile of clothes, I spotted a man’s white shirt lying on top.
    “What’s this, Amy?” I asked.
    She flushed and bit her bottom lip. “Uh, these are just some old things I don’t wear anymore,” she said. “I wanted to get rid of them.”
    “Really?” I said. “Most people